May 15, 2026 • 34 mins
John Laghezza and Jake Trowbridge are back with another offseason episode with analysis of the latest breaking news league wide! The guys review Tampa Bay's backfield in depth, a Rams potential timeshare, take a deep dive into Malik Nabers' latest setback and we try and figure out who's the best value for the Vikings when it comes to pass catchers. All that and much more as it's another jam packed edition of FFW!
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Time now for Fantasy Football Weekly from iHeartRadio, your weekly
source for the nation's best fantasy speculation and advice. All right,
welcome back. Leads to the offseason edition of Fantasy Football
Weekly with your host and faithful narrator, John mcgaza, with
my friend and yours, mister Jake Troubridge. Jake, what's going on?
(00:25):
You know what? Before you get started, me tell you.
I think I changed my mind. I think this is
my favorite time to draft. We're gonna go over some
news articles and the movement, like the immediate reactions and
overreactions in the markets are what this is all about.
So how are you doing, my friend?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I love that, John.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I am ready for every week for the intro to
be actually psych This is the time that I'm most excited,
right up until we actually, I think kick off the season.
I think every week should get a little bit better
for you to draft. That is my hope for you anyways, John,
But I do love all the overreaction stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Well, especially the way that news goes. You know, what
happens so fast.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
It's yet it happens so fast. People are trying to
still stay in the loop. As far as the NFL
is concerned. Obviously, outside of the big events we've already had,
the NFL Draft, training camps haven't started yet. It's kind
of this weird, nebulous space in between where we're trying
to keep up with all this stuff, and people do
have a tendency to overreact, I think because there's not
always a lot of news, so we cling to whatever
(01:28):
news there is and maybe even overanalyze it. I don't know,
Maybe let's do some over analyzing today, John, I.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Mean a backup tight end signs and the world goes
crazy because, especially right now, it's really best Bowl season
and that's who's driving the market. As we get closer,
we're going to talk more and more about redraft that
will be the focus. But right now the market is
being set by best bowlers who also contend to overreact.
But it's not even to beat that word to death.
(01:56):
It's just there is no price, so markets have to
do what markets to, which is price fined, and oftentime
that's a battle, for lack of a better word, between
buyers and sellers. All right, let's get into the news
that I had some strength of schedule stuff. We'll put
that off the next week because the news keeps hitting,
so it starts at the top. Right, at the top
of the board. Also Bucks running back Bucky Irving. I'm
(02:18):
gonna read this. This is a quote off social Apparently
it hasn't been cleared to participate just yet coming off
shoulder surgery. I'm gonna add this gulp. Time will tell
if he's able to get cleared in time for OTAs
or if they have to hold off until training camp
oc Zach Robinson said, just threw it out there. Kenneth
Gainwell and Bucky Irving have similar skill sets. Right now,
(02:41):
Bucky going off in ADP forty four, Jake he missed
weeks five through twelve. When he returned after that, he
was the RB twenty seven overall, his replacement right his
backup Right now, Gainwell going off in ADP one eighty eight.
From week eleven on last season, he scored seventy and
a half Fantasy points a game that was the overall
(03:03):
RB six. Talk to me about the Buck situation and
the obvious. Are you into Irving? Are you still into Irving?
Do you like him at dis price or if not,
at what well?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
If everything had stayed the same, meaning personnel had stayed
the same, in Tampa Bay. I would have been willing
to write off any bad stretches that Bucky had last
year is.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Just kind of a one off.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Just he's going through it with all the injury stuff,
and we had some decent games, and that's just kind
of rerack and almost set the clock back to twenty
twenty four with Gainwell signing.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I was already getting nervous.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
I'm not I wasn't going to be so bold as
to say that they have the exact same play set,
Kenneth Gainwell and Bucky Irving. If the coaches are saying that,
the coordinators are saying that we have to listen to that,
I already think that Kenny Gainwell is significantly better as
a pure runner and pass catcher than Rashad White at
this stage in their respective careers. So yeah, I kind
(03:57):
of made the decision to pivot away from Bucky and
pivot more towards Kenny gain Well. I wonder if that'll
be as easy to do, ironically now that this news
came out, because if Bucky's ADP starts to drop with
this news and Kenny starts to go up, then I
might not actually get as many shares of Kenny as
I was hoping to do you. I guess what is
(04:18):
the threshold for you for wanting to draft Kenny Gainwell?
Because I'm I'm I think I'm gonna do it a
lot regardless, But what's it gonna take for you?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah? That news really was very deflating for me because
I was feeling this already. I was already heading in
this direction that Bucky might be hampered and was probably
too expensive at pick forty four, he's going to drop.
And then conversely, I thought Gainwell was too talented, projecting
for too much of a workload to be going that
(04:47):
far back. Those two prices are certainly going to converge,
right man. Maybe that's the theme of today, is price
finding in market machinations. The market is gonna tell us
just where I had a hard time seeing Bucky getting outside,
let's say the fifth I don't think he's gonna get
outside of pick sixty unless there's something definitive on the
(05:09):
other side. There's a lot more room in my opinion.
I'm sorry I said it's won eighteen. To be clear
for Gainwell, I think I might have come off as
one eighty. It's one eighteen, but still there's still a
lot of room for him to run and meet. The
reason I say that, Jake is because just kind of
with one v one replacements, there are other backups, you know,
(05:31):
in that range, So let's start to put some names
to it. Blake Korum is a backup and a good one, right,
He's a pick ninety six. JK. Dobbins, the same Chris
Rodriguez we spoke about last week at pick one ten.
So just kind of trying to archetype Gainwell into a spot.
I think that's where it is. I think he's gonna
(05:53):
wind up jumping about two rounds into those firm backups.
And he even jumped in because Koram is likely not
going to project strongly for week one where Gainwell without Irving,
let's say Irving has a little setback or you know,
they're dragging us along, he doesn't get the reps in needs.
(06:13):
If he's the start of week one, he's gonna project
as a running back one. So what do you think
about those new prices? Let me set Irving at sixty,
Gainwell at ninety. Talk to me about the new prices.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
I'd rather still go with Gainwell over that list of
guys that you talked about, So I think we are
finding not yet my ceiling, Like I could probably go
another round higher if I'm being honest, just because I've
I love the talent of Kenny Gainwall. Obviously, we saw
him have a career year last year with the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
And he's on a better offense now.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
So yeah, there's still a lot of wishy washiness with
the injury stuff. We're not doctors here, but we're listening
to people who seem to know what they're talking about
with this stuff. It's funny that you mentioned Blake Korham
because I was just talking to somebody the other day
about how I am very skeptical of the reports coming
out from the RAMS facilities that oh, actually it's going
(07:07):
to be more of a fifty to fifty split this year.
With Kyrin and Blake Krum we've heard that. We've heard
that so many times before, But with Gainwell, I could
actually see that being legitimate.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
If these guys are even both healthy.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Well, I would have run with that. We've heard this before.
That's an actual segue. What a great setup. We're gonna
stick with the Bucks, even though this next piece of
news is not as impactful atop the board, as let's say,
Irving as some of the other guys we're going to
talk about. But since we're in Tampa and it was
taking over my social media feed, and maybe because it
bugged me a little bit or I just was interested,
(07:42):
there's a lot of talk out of Tampa in the
wide receiver room, and a lot coming out from Zach
Robinson about how that might shake out. We talk about
a Mecca a Google last year where I think was
really good for a rookie campaign. I think he was
especially good without Evans, who has now moved on. I
wasn't really worried at all about at Buka to the
(08:04):
point I was really even into Jalen McMillan, who shown
quite a bit of success in smaller samples when given
the chance, And you would just think without Evans, everybody
kind of gets a little bit more playing time. But
now Robinson is saying that Ted Hurst, the rookie they drafted,
I believe it's the third round at the end that
(08:27):
he's the true ex right, So I'm doing air quotes
and this is what took off on social media. Now,
of course we all know you want to watch the
whole clip and I did, and I didn't get that
scene feeling from the clip because some of it was
Remember the NFL is really hard and takes a lot
(08:47):
of time. Hurst is. This is an actual quote, verbatim.
Hurst is coming out of small school Georgia State, which
probably means there's an acclamation period involved. The second I
heard that, I was like, I am loving this. Let
everybody push up Hurst, let everybody push down McMillan, and
you could grab them both. And in these best ball scenarios,
(09:10):
a late Tampa stack which is already kind of high octane,
already has the coordinator and the quarterback in place to
do some damage. I'm fine with all that movement. Again,
I'm fine with Hurst moving up because he's have to
pick two hundred. I'm fine with McMillan moving back. So
talk to me one about I don't know what you
think about this situation. And then maybe even these like
(09:31):
coach speak, you know, quotes and how people run with
them more in general, Well.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
It is the time of year for that, so we
should put out a general warning to people. Remember, just
because a coach says something doesn't even mean that they
believe it or that it will Yeah, so with that
out of the way. First of all, Yeah, I would
not worried about a Mecca a Buca. I was never
worried about a Mecca a Buka. He had a great
rookie year. It would have been even better if he
wasn't injured. But stuff happens. It is what it is.
(09:58):
What I liked about this season without Mike Evans gonna
be there for the training camp is that it sets
a precedent at training camp we do not have Mike Evans.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
We can plan.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Accordingly to not have Mike Evans, unlike last year where
he was just suddenly not there. That's always worse for
all of the receivers involved. So Abuka is gonna be great.
Hurst is not going to fill the quote unquote Mike
Evans role, not this year, not anytime soon, probably not ever,
because he is not Mike Evans. With Jalen McMillan, I
(10:30):
do like what you're talking about with his ADP dropping though,
because if he's gonna be out there in three wide
receiver sets, which he should be, and Chris Godwin happens
to get injured, which he's been known to do, suddenly
he's going to end up with a bigger workload, more
of a target share than we had imagined. So I
like all these guys. I'm fine grabbing Hurst in Dynasty.
(10:54):
I'm not really about Ted Hurst this year. It's always
tough with rookie wide receivers. It's accepttionally tough with a
rookie wide receiver, as they were saying in that report,
that has to come in from.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
A smaller school.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
As great as he's been ascending the ranks, it's gonna
take some time for him.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, this in particular happens every year. What do you
want him to say about the guy? Oh no, he
looks kind of slow and maybe he's on the stupid side.
That's never gonna happen. He's looking to build these guys up,
and you know, and I think he does believe it.
But he also couched it with all the usual stuff.
The NFL is hard. There's gonna be hiccups. Two steps forward,
(11:31):
one step back, people take And the quote that ran
on social media was quite literally true. X That was
the only part of the you know, three minute block
quote that made it to social media, and that was
enough for people to run wild. I already saw hers
going like two or three rounds earlier. Just this morning,
I was knocking out a couple drafts before we move on.
(11:53):
I did have a note on McMillan because I remember
him really being great. Now, the injuries are a thing
we can't victim, so I'm not gonna try. During twenty
twenty four, he had a five game run in a
full time role. You know, he's an outside receiver. You're
generally running three quarters of his routes outside. So the
five game stint between week fourteen and eighteen, he went
(12:15):
twenty four, three, sixteen and seven.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
He was the.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Overall wide receiver eight. He was a beast lansterer. Again,
it was limited and crowded, so in limited work and
it was crowded, I actually didn't think as a you know,
a projector and a better or a prop better and
all that stuff. I didn't think he was really going
to make an impact. And he had an eighteen percent
target per route run and more than two yards per
rout run. These are the numbers that we look for
(12:41):
that stick that matter. So ident to think McMillan is
going to at least earn a look, get that look,
I think he'll succeed. But it picked one forty three
and two hundred, respectively. You could draft them both, so right,
why not both? Dot Jiff? Now onto the next news
and note Jake, this is the backup tight end that
I was mentioning all. I want to kick it to
(13:01):
you enough out of me. Charges agreed to terms with
David and Joku on a one year deal worth up
to eight million dollars. There's a lot here, dadstand the
Chargers in general taken away.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Yeah, I'm glad that David n Joku's getting another chance.
I mean, I did feel bad for the guy. It
was kind of a rough go last year. It was
the injury, or maybe it wasn't the injury that had
him getting leap frogged by a rookie tight end, Harold
Fanna Junior. We don't know for sure, but it's nice
to see him go to a tight end friendly scheme
(13:33):
or what I suspect to be one, because Mike McDaniel
has made a lot of kind of middling tight ends
look pretty good, at least for fantasy purposes. It was
just a couple of years ago he had twenty nine
year old John hu smith Win in folks some leagues,
and you know, last year he had the ghost of
Darren Waller looking like Casper the fantasy friendly tight end
(13:54):
for a handful of weeks. So if somebody can get
the best out of Njoku, I do think it's him.
But I'm not willing to throw around a Gadsten off
the boat either. I'm not pushing him into the water
because I can't say John that in Jok, who's going
to be better this year for sure than Gadson is
(14:14):
Gadsden a looked pretty solid flashed at least last year
in that offense. Again, I think the offense steps forward
and wants youth and speed with Mike McDaniel, those are
not two things associated with David and Joku at this point.
And in Joku just he just has a habit of
getting hurt. I never want to say that a guy
(14:35):
is definitely gonna get hurt. But when's the last time
that he was fully healthy for a season. I can't
remember it. So yeah, I just don't want people to
throw Gadsden out with the bathwater because of this news.
I might dabble with a little bit of each of
these guys, depending on their ADP's John.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, I think I'm stuck. I'm worried. I'm worried, and
usually when I'm worried about tight end splitting, I think
I'm out. Now. You make an interesting point with McDaniel
and him maximizing talent for a tight end. The thing
is none of those schemes wherever multiple tight ends. So
I'll concede we don't know what the offense is going
(15:15):
to look like, which would be your only pathway to
having both of them matter is a change. Last year,
Chargers sixteen percent two tight end sets or more was
actually dead last The next team was twenty one percent,
and that was Miami, where McDaniel just was. So it's
(15:36):
not to see that whoever is out there won't be
doing really well. I just don't know if it can
support both of them. I think Herbert is the type
of guy we just would need a big schematic change.
So I had Gaston up and down season last year.
He's going off at ADP one point thirty two, which
(15:56):
felt totally fair before the n Joku thing. If you're
not worried at all, and I think he keep going
because he's probably gonna drop between weeks. He still had
a late start last year, so this is weeks three
through nine, Gatson scored twelve and a half Fantasy points
a game. That was good for the tight end six. Right,
that's the good. That's what people are hoping to get
more of. However, from Week ten on he was the
(16:18):
tight end thirty and kind of disappeared. Now the Chargers
lost their entire offensive line and really had to kind
of build a boat in the middle of the ocean.
So maybe that's a bit of a throwaway. But that
plus end joke, who is a little bit of a
worry guy's of physical beat six four to forty six
runs a four to six forty and he was the
tight end eleven in twenty twenty four. So this is
(16:40):
not Jake. I don't know, man, this veteran guy, you know,
Anthony Goazalez coming out of retirement or something. Twenty twenty
four he was a tight end one, and week seven
through fourteen in that same season he had over sixteen
Fantasy points a game. He was the overall tight end four,
tied with McBride. So I'm just worried if Njoku is
(17:03):
healthy that he could eat into it. I think I
want to know. One more thing I was hoping would
come up is one of the points that I've heard
made by sharp analyst is that in Joku just maybe dusted.
Everybody else had a chance at this guy. They all
see the seam stats that I was just repeating to.
None of this is discovered newly. So what do you
(17:24):
think about that? What do you think about the general
collective market? Like, I guess this is kind of wisdom
of the crowd stuff. All the gms had a crack
at him, and he ended up as the backup on
a team that already had a tight end. So do
you think maybe we should just be looking past in
Joku and if you're a Gaston supporter, let him drop around,
then keep scooping him.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Well, I don't think that Injoku was so good and
such a hey we have to go out and get
this player immediately. He wasn't a first wave of free
agency guy. I do think it was just a timing
thing for me of like, hey, it's the NFL Draft,
let's see who he can get for tight ends in
the draft. Sixteen of the thirty two NFL teams took
at least one tight end in the draft this year,
(18:06):
and they're probably just thinking, hey, let's wait it out
and see how those cards fall before anybody makes a move.
To be fair, I would have liked to see him
sign like literally the day after the NFL Draft, and
that didn't happen, So it's a bummer. I don't like
to jump on the he's dusted boat until I've fully
seen it sink. And as of right now, I still
have some hope. But that's it. It's only hope.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Yeah. I would have trepidation at cost for Gaston, but again,
this is one of those other price finding situations. Gatson
is going to move with the Joku lose, He's going
to move. It's just a matter of how much, And
you know that's what markets do. I think it'll be
at least around I think if he starts to crack
the one fifty range, even myself, who's admittedly kind of
(18:52):
bearish on it, if you're looking to put together a
two or three tight end group, to me, he feels
like a pretty strong part of that. Let me take
a breather and shuffle some notes. I don't want to
get to the last end. All right, let's pick it
up right here, Jake with Aaron Rodgers. This is not
necessarily the news we thought was gonna happen. Aaron Rodgers
(19:16):
was supposed to visit with the steel of some of
the weekend the we're't supposed to be doing a lot
of heavy lifting here. That meeting never happened. So I
don't know. We're getting pretty close to the season, you know,
repetitions matter. They brought in Pittman. I mean, is it
really even fair to these guys to not have no
(19:36):
who's gonna be throwing to the ball or at least
be practicing with him? Again, I was always a big
Aaron Rodgers guy. This whole shtick I'm getting is getting
a little old for me because because he's discarding the
things that matter between the lines. I'm fine with you
being a yo yo outside of the lines, providing you're
taking care of your business and treating it seriously, and
(19:57):
that I don't think he's doing. Either do your business
or get off the pot. Let us know, because if not,
are they going to go to Mason Rolff. So again
it is my question to you, mister Trobridge, is a
Rogers to the Steelers a formality? Is it already a
foregone conclusion? And it's so, will they really begin the
season with Mason Rudolph?
Speaker 3 (20:16):
I don't know why it has to be a foregone conclusion.
Why why have the Steelers dugged themselves into the most
avoidable hole and then instead of just throwing the shovel
to the side and pick it up the ladder, they're like, Nope,
we're gonna keep digging in the hopes that eventually we
come out on the other side. That's childish logic. Stop
(20:39):
letting this guy do this to you. He's not good
enough to warrant this. That's the thing. If this was
prime Aaron Rodgers, I get it, because your hopes of
a Super Bowl hinge on this player. Potentially they don't now.
In fact, Rogers stats last year were bad when you
look at him, and they could have looked even worse
(20:59):
if his pass catchers weren't bailing him out. I mean,
you had one of the lowest success rates in the league,
one of the lowest yards per pass attempt, He was
top ten in bad throw percentage, he was below average
on on target percentage. And it looks better because his
pass catchers A led the league and yards after the
catch per attempt, and B had a pretty low drop
(21:21):
percentage as a group. Obviously, a quarterback affects that stat
to some extent, but it's just it's not worth it.
I really think John that the fantasy pieces in Pittsburgh
would be better off at this point with any of
the current quarterbacks on that roster. I mean, DK Metcalf
had the fewest yards per game since his rookie year
with Rogers last season. I don't see him being a
(21:45):
necessarily big upgrade from even Will Howard, the rookie they
drafted last year, Drew Aller, the rookie they took this.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Year in the third round. You're not going to the
super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
At least see what you have in these quarterbacks and
just have them chuck the ball a bunch will be
fine for fantasy.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
If that's the case.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
I'd rather have a rookie going out there just almost
fending for his future throwing the ball to these guys,
then Dusty old Aaron Rodgers just trying not get to
get sacked every play.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
How about that? Allur news. You must unlearn what you
have learned. They went full Yoda on the poor guy.
I mean, and if not, you're getting Rudolph I don't know,
negative epa p attempt on his career six point seven
YPA and then to Rogers, he's slow. He was, he
was inefficient, slow, and he doesn't run, which is a
nightmare for fantasy and it's also a nightmare for real football.
(22:37):
So I don't know why they'd even be interested. All right,
let's move it on now. This one mattered a bit more.
And man, I'm a little glad I didn't get so
aggressive in my drafting early because I'm a huge Malik
Knighbors Stan He's underwent a second surgery on his knee
to remove scar tissue causing stiffness, rut row, shaggy. The
(22:58):
second surgery took place a few weeks ago, described as
a cleanup. These are all the oh the fagazy terms.
They try and get us to think like he's gonna
be fine. It's not expected to impact the top. He
had surgery, but it's not expected to impact the timeline.
So this was a magical surgery. Everybody not, no worries,
don't worry. I mean, this is ridiculous, right, I think
(23:21):
you can't draft Neighbors where he's going at ADP nineteen.
I saw some other sharp sites have him in the
late twenties, early thirties. I would need to see him
probably in the fourth round, and even then, I've had
a bad recent history Jake with lower body injuries and
expecting like full and immediate recoveries. Mark Andrews comes to mind,
(23:43):
Tony Pollard comes to mind. Kark Cousins come to mind.
The old guys that are good football players had lower
body injuries back half of a season and we just
expect him to not it not matter. So what do
you think about, neighbors? Do you think, like I guess
set the bar right? Where should where should be taken?
For me, it's maybe round four. He's never gonna make
(24:03):
it round five, dybe it's four. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yeah, he's too good of a receiver to have him fall.
I would say out of the back of the third round.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
I think he's gonna fit up planting there for right now.
As the season goes on, if we keep getting these pushbacks,
and if they keeps using the word hope, like if
we get two months out from now and they're still
hoping he'll be ready for the opener, that's when the
panics which really gets pulled. Like I can deal with
hope in February, March, and even a little bit in May,
(24:32):
but at a certain point, like you got to know
what's happening with your guy. The thing that makes it
hard to look away from Alik Williams a neighbor. Excuse me,
my league neighbor's entirely, entirely is looking at the depth
chart behind him, because I'm like, well, who can I
pivot to to take advantage of on this offense?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
I don't think that person exists.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
Darnel Mooney, Okay, I guess we'll see how high his
ADP climbs. Maybe he can be respectable. Maybe the tight
ends I start to get more interested in. Maybe Isaiah
likely becomes an even more permanent fixture of my rosters.
But it's I think it's you're saying, if he misses
a game or two, my lak neighbors isn't ready for
week one. I'm still okay, i'lso draft him. It's when
(25:17):
we start to talk about three and four games missed
that that line gets pushed. If you miss four games,
and if we know that or have a pretty good
idea that that's gonna happen, I tend to just be
out on those players.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Do you have that similar cutoff at all?
Speaker 1 (25:30):
John? Yeah? I injuries find me they tend to find
all of us I try to invite them, especially at
a premium. So to me, this is a perfect storm
of thanks but no thanks, you know, especially in the
top thirty six. Like you mentioned you, I'll let him
beat me at that point. If we get into the
forties and especially the late forties, I could see pulling
(25:52):
the trigger, because he absolutely is a difference maker, absolutely
is a different maker. The subsequent piece is that's really interesting.
I think you and Irison Pataco, I think likely is
probably the answer. The thing is Darius Slayton, who really
is just a vertical kind of field stretcher adp. Two fifteen.
He just had core surgery a couple of weeks ago.
But don't worry. He's fine. It didn't matter. It doesn't matter.
(26:15):
Apparently surgery is, you know, don't matter here in New York.
Maybe I should go get something surgeried because it doesn't matter.
You know, you could just go and play professional football
at the highest level. So I know the core stuff
is not necessarily like an ACL, but it's not encouraging
and it's not like he even produced in the sample
you mentioned Mooney, who again I have to admit stepping
(26:37):
on a rake. It just felt intuitive. I said, oh,
don't Old Mooney is a he's a wide receiver, and
like he's got to be good. Right. He had zero
top thirty two weeks last year. He was not a
top thirty two wide receiver, not once. And I get
part of that is scripting, but a lot of times
you could earn your way to one. Right, if you
(26:59):
had one matchup that got exploited, you should land somewhere
in there. So Moony not really looking like a great
pick at cost, I still could absolutely see going there.
I just again with my own recent struggles. I like
the draft guys that I think are really good at football,
you know. I like the draft guys that I think, Yeah,
but you know what, I'm a huh for playing time
(27:22):
and right we get that projectable volume. And I was
talking about that there's a point where it has like
a ceiling baked in that even at a certain cost,
is just not worth it because the other players that
the risk reward ratio could really pop. These last drafts,
I've noticed I'd much rather have any of the direct
(27:43):
RB rookie handcuffs than any of these kind of dusty whiteouts.
I'd rather get them in the mid round. So I
think I'm with you on likely. Maybe it'll be interesting
to see if they go with a two tight end deployment.
I don't know. Miami Dolphins did the right thing. They
agreed to a four year extension sixty eight million with
Devin h Chan, who's the NFL's third highest paid running
(28:06):
back at seventeen million per year. Well deserved, he is
the man. I don't know if that really changes anything.
I guess maybe if we were worried whether or not
they would run him into the ground, now we have
our answer. I guess he's going off at ADP fourteen.
I was already drafting him aggressively despite maybe my systemic worries.
He's a line for a million touches. So does anything
(28:30):
change for you in Miami.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
I'm actually a little surprised to hear you say that
it doesn't change anything for you, because I maybe it's
because i'd been a little bit leery about a Chan
with the complete overhaul of that team, you know, new GM,
new coaching staff, all that stuff. And yes, we can
look at the talent of Achan and assume that he
will continue to be used the same way that he
(28:52):
has been the last couple of years, but it's never
a given. So this is actually a nice kind of
firming up thing for me to say, Okay, they believe
in him, They're not going to try to shoehorn too
much Ali Gordon or Jalen Wright or whoever else into
this mix. Like you've dedicated, You've been committed to a
Chan here, and I'm trying to remember the last time
(29:13):
that a team committed this hard to a running back
being the engine of an offense.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Like contract wise.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
With CMC and Zeke Elliott, you know, they got those
levels of commitment. He has had a little bit more
proving quarterbacks in their quarter at the time that that happened.
So he's kind of the only guy. Even Malik Willis's
contract is not that hefty. It's not as high as
we maybe thought it was going to be once he
started to pop off. So it's a tiebreaker for me
(29:43):
for sure.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Like at his.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
ADP, there have been some guys where I've been wanting
to take Ashton Gentzy over him, and now i think
I'm back on eight Chan over genty.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Yeah, Well that's fine. Genty would be what we mentioned
last week. He's one of the players. I'm kind of
fine mix with a Chan because I think you know,
fantasy outcome wise, they're both very similar, both having a
pathway to quite literally being the number one player in
the game right when a little bit of blocking, they
can catch the ball and if their team winds up
in the green zone and off, both those guys could
(30:15):
be great. I'm definitely taking a Chan over I got
like Barkley, and not that I think Barkley is bad
back to what I was saying, but I think I
want running backs on the upswing right, I'd like I
want to catch the great season. I don't want to
chase the great season. And again, Barkley could surprise us
and pop again. I think the best is in the
rear view. Last piece of news before we get out
(30:38):
of here. This one kind of got dropped to me
a little bit, and it's certain to have some effect
in the drafting market. Minnesota Vikings go out and sign
Juwan Jennings to a one year deal. So, man, we
saw Jennings produce when pepper. He's also known very well
(30:58):
around the league for his blocking abilities. Very few wide
receivers are as physical and the reason I mentioned now
that we don't get points for that, but we kind
of do because that's how you earn playing time. You
want to earn playing time in the NFL, you give
full effort and actually block for runners. The reason I
mentioned this is I was a little high or getting
high on Jordan Addison, and I'm a little bit worried
(31:20):
giving the quarterback situation or lack thereof, that we're not
going to be able to sustain Jefferson with Jennings and
Addison that now is starting to feel a little bit
rich there. So Addison to pick eighty five, I am
probably one hundred percent out. He would have to move
at least another round. Jennings at one forty five I
(31:42):
already drafted this morning because he felt it at ADP.
I got him at like one twenty five. So I
think we have another conversions. Talk to me about the
Vikings pass catching room and maybe what that does for you.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
If anything, it solidifies my notion that I want to
go all in on Justin Jefferson this year for a
bounce back. I'd already been feeling that way. I felt
like he's nobody's really quarterback proof as we saw last year,
but he is still kind of the closest thing to it,
and with Kyler Murray, assuming that he actually wins the job,
(32:15):
the one thing that Kyler does is he targets his
number one guy. Whether it's a wide receiver or a
tight end whoever, he will force feed that guy. So
I'm actually happy to not have to even think about
Jordan Addison. I'm not gonna think about Juwan Jennings. Those
guys just kind of cancel each other out. It's not
that they can't give you spike weeks, but like Juwan
Jennings only had three games last year with more than
(32:36):
fifty five yards. You know, that's not something that's super
attractive unless you are sure he's gonna get more targets,
and I don't think he will with Justin Jefferson being there.
So I'm just gonna go really hard and hope that
this news suppresses Justin Jefferson just a tiny bit as
well as we get closer to the season.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Yeah, I think that spike that I'd mentioned from Jennings
really was more a function of injury and force feeding
volume opposed to earning targets. I think I think Addison's
probably a better target earner than Jennings. But that doesn't
mean I don't think Jennings more of a prototypical outside
(33:17):
guy is again going to earn playing time, and no
one is bumping J Jeff out of the way. So
I'm and the more I talk about this, the more
bearish I'll be coming on Addison. He could fall to
a point where I'm into a Viking stack, but then again,
it takes me back to the quarterback situation, so I'm
probably out of those guys. I like the Jefferson take,
and it's funny you mentioned it because these kind of
(33:39):
you know, noos drops can impact guys in the first round,
where it's just important to stay relative people. Obviously, a
first round pick is can't move up three rounds, but
a first round pick moving back two picks or three
picks is kind of a big deal. And we've been
talking about this, Jake, our approach to the one to
(34:00):
the first two rounds and trying to find balance. You know,
if I compare Jefferson with a one of those second
round running backs that we like, man, I'm feeling very
I'm feeling very good about a J Jeff ken walk
Star J Jeff and a Chen or any of those guys.
So man, that was really nice. So Jake, appreciate your
time as always on this lovely Friday. So that'll do it.
(34:23):
From John Lagaza and Jake Trowbridge here at Fantasy Football Weekly,
I appreciate everybody you know well, like and review with
all that stuff, hit us up on social media and
enjoy your weekend.
Time now for Fantasy Football Weekly from iHeartRadio, your weekly
source for the nation's best fantasy speculation and advice. All right,
welcome back. Leads to the offseason edition of Fantasy Football
Weekly with your host and faithful narrator, John mcgaza, with
my friend and yours, mister Jake Troubridge. Jake, what's going on?
(00:25):
You know what? Before you get started, me tell you.
I think I changed my mind. I think this is
my favorite time to draft. We're gonna go over some
news articles and the movement, like the immediate reactions and
overreactions in the markets are what this is all about.
So how are you doing, my friend?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I love that, John.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I am ready for every week for the intro to
be actually psych This is the time that I'm most excited,
right up until we actually, I think kick off the season.
I think every week should get a little bit better
for you to draft. That is my hope for you anyways, John,
But I do love all the overreaction stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Well, especially the way that news goes. You know, what
happens so fast.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
It's yet it happens so fast. People are trying to
still stay in the loop. As far as the NFL
is concerned. Obviously, outside of the big events we've already had,
the NFL Draft, training camps haven't started yet. It's kind
of this weird, nebulous space in between where we're trying
to keep up with all this stuff, and people do
have a tendency to overreact, I think because there's not
always a lot of news, so we cling to whatever
(01:28):
news there is and maybe even overanalyze it. I don't know,
Maybe let's do some over analyzing today, John, I.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Mean a backup tight end signs and the world goes
crazy because, especially right now, it's really best Bowl season
and that's who's driving the market. As we get closer,
we're going to talk more and more about redraft that
will be the focus. But right now the market is
being set by best bowlers who also contend to overreact.
But it's not even to beat that word to death.
(01:56):
It's just there is no price, so markets have to
do what markets to, which is price fined, and oftentime
that's a battle, for lack of a better word, between
buyers and sellers. All right, let's get into the news
that I had some strength of schedule stuff. We'll put
that off the next week because the news keeps hitting,
so it starts at the top. Right, at the top
of the board. Also Bucks running back Bucky Irving. I'm
(02:18):
gonna read this. This is a quote off social Apparently
it hasn't been cleared to participate just yet coming off
shoulder surgery. I'm gonna add this gulp. Time will tell
if he's able to get cleared in time for OTAs
or if they have to hold off until training camp
oc Zach Robinson said, just threw it out there. Kenneth
Gainwell and Bucky Irving have similar skill sets. Right now,
(02:41):
Bucky going off in ADP forty four, Jake he missed
weeks five through twelve. When he returned after that, he
was the RB twenty seven overall, his replacement right his
backup Right now, Gainwell going off in ADP one eighty eight.
From week eleven on last season, he scored seventy and
a half Fantasy points a game that was the overall
(03:03):
RB six. Talk to me about the Buck situation and
the obvious. Are you into Irving? Are you still into Irving?
Do you like him at dis price or if not,
at what well?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
If everything had stayed the same, meaning personnel had stayed
the same, in Tampa Bay. I would have been willing
to write off any bad stretches that Bucky had last
year is.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Just kind of a one off.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Just he's going through it with all the injury stuff,
and we had some decent games, and that's just kind
of rerack and almost set the clock back to twenty
twenty four with Gainwell signing.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I was already getting nervous.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
I'm not I wasn't going to be so bold as
to say that they have the exact same play set,
Kenneth Gainwell and Bucky Irving. If the coaches are saying that,
the coordinators are saying that we have to listen to that,
I already think that Kenny Gainwell is significantly better as
a pure runner and pass catcher than Rashad White at
this stage in their respective careers. So yeah, I kind
(03:57):
of made the decision to pivot away from Bucky and
pivot more towards Kenny gain Well. I wonder if that'll
be as easy to do, ironically now that this news
came out, because if Bucky's ADP starts to drop with
this news and Kenny starts to go up, then I
might not actually get as many shares of Kenny as
I was hoping to do you. I guess what is
(04:18):
the threshold for you for wanting to draft Kenny Gainwell?
Because I'm I'm I think I'm gonna do it a
lot regardless, But what's it gonna take for you?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah? That news really was very deflating for me because
I was feeling this already. I was already heading in
this direction that Bucky might be hampered and was probably
too expensive at pick forty four, he's going to drop.
And then conversely, I thought Gainwell was too talented, projecting
for too much of a workload to be going that
(04:47):
far back. Those two prices are certainly going to converge,
right man. Maybe that's the theme of today, is price
finding in market machinations. The market is gonna tell us
just where I had a hard time seeing Bucky getting outside,
let's say the fifth I don't think he's gonna get
outside of pick sixty unless there's something definitive on the
(05:09):
other side. There's a lot more room in my opinion.
I'm sorry I said it's won eighteen. To be clear
for Gainwell, I think I might have come off as
one eighty. It's one eighteen, but still there's still a
lot of room for him to run and meet. The
reason I say that, Jake is because just kind of
with one v one replacements, there are other backups, you know,
(05:31):
in that range, So let's start to put some names
to it. Blake Korum is a backup and a good one, right,
He's a pick ninety six. JK. Dobbins, the same Chris
Rodriguez we spoke about last week at pick one ten.
So just kind of trying to archetype Gainwell into a spot.
I think that's where it is. I think he's gonna
(05:53):
wind up jumping about two rounds into those firm backups.
And he even jumped in because Koram is likely not
going to project strongly for week one where Gainwell without Irving,
let's say Irving has a little setback or you know,
they're dragging us along, he doesn't get the reps in needs.
(06:13):
If he's the start of week one, he's gonna project
as a running back one. So what do you think
about those new prices? Let me set Irving at sixty,
Gainwell at ninety. Talk to me about the new prices.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
I'd rather still go with Gainwell over that list of
guys that you talked about, So I think we are
finding not yet my ceiling, Like I could probably go
another round higher if I'm being honest, just because I've
I love the talent of Kenny Gainwall. Obviously, we saw
him have a career year last year with the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
And he's on a better offense now.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
So yeah, there's still a lot of wishy washiness with
the injury stuff. We're not doctors here, but we're listening
to people who seem to know what they're talking about
with this stuff. It's funny that you mentioned Blake Korham
because I was just talking to somebody the other day
about how I am very skeptical of the reports coming
out from the RAMS facilities that oh, actually it's going
(07:07):
to be more of a fifty to fifty split this year.
With Kyrin and Blake Krum we've heard that. We've heard
that so many times before, But with Gainwell, I could
actually see that being legitimate.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
If these guys are even both healthy.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Well, I would have run with that. We've heard this before.
That's an actual segue. What a great setup. We're gonna
stick with the Bucks, even though this next piece of
news is not as impactful atop the board, as let's say,
Irving as some of the other guys we're going to
talk about. But since we're in Tampa and it was
taking over my social media feed, and maybe because it
bugged me a little bit or I just was interested,
(07:42):
there's a lot of talk out of Tampa in the
wide receiver room, and a lot coming out from Zach
Robinson about how that might shake out. We talk about
a Mecca a Google last year where I think was
really good for a rookie campaign. I think he was
especially good without Evans, who has now moved on. I
wasn't really worried at all about at Buka to the
(08:04):
point I was really even into Jalen McMillan, who shown
quite a bit of success in smaller samples when given
the chance, And you would just think without Evans, everybody
kind of gets a little bit more playing time. But
now Robinson is saying that Ted Hurst, the rookie they drafted,
I believe it's the third round at the end that
(08:27):
he's the true ex right, So I'm doing air quotes
and this is what took off on social media. Now,
of course we all know you want to watch the
whole clip and I did, and I didn't get that
scene feeling from the clip because some of it was
Remember the NFL is really hard and takes a lot
(08:47):
of time. Hurst is. This is an actual quote, verbatim.
Hurst is coming out of small school Georgia State, which
probably means there's an acclamation period involved. The second I
heard that, I was like, I am loving this. Let
everybody push up Hurst, let everybody push down McMillan, and
you could grab them both. And in these best ball scenarios,
(09:10):
a late Tampa stack which is already kind of high octane,
already has the coordinator and the quarterback in place to
do some damage. I'm fine with all that movement. Again,
I'm fine with Hurst moving up because he's have to
pick two hundred. I'm fine with McMillan moving back. So
talk to me one about I don't know what you
think about this situation. And then maybe even these like
(09:31):
coach speak, you know, quotes and how people run with
them more in general, Well.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
It is the time of year for that, so we
should put out a general warning to people. Remember, just
because a coach says something doesn't even mean that they
believe it or that it will Yeah, so with that
out of the way. First of all, Yeah, I would
not worried about a Mecca a Buca. I was never
worried about a Mecca a Buka. He had a great
rookie year. It would have been even better if he
wasn't injured. But stuff happens. It is what it is.
(09:58):
What I liked about this season without Mike Evans gonna
be there for the training camp is that it sets
a precedent at training camp we do not have Mike Evans.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
We can plan.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Accordingly to not have Mike Evans, unlike last year where
he was just suddenly not there. That's always worse for
all of the receivers involved. So Abuka is gonna be great.
Hurst is not going to fill the quote unquote Mike
Evans role, not this year, not anytime soon, probably not ever,
because he is not Mike Evans. With Jalen McMillan, I
(10:30):
do like what you're talking about with his ADP dropping though,
because if he's gonna be out there in three wide
receiver sets, which he should be, and Chris Godwin happens
to get injured, which he's been known to do, suddenly
he's going to end up with a bigger workload, more
of a target share than we had imagined. So I
like all these guys. I'm fine grabbing Hurst in Dynasty.
(10:54):
I'm not really about Ted Hurst this year. It's always
tough with rookie wide receivers. It's accepttionally tough with a
rookie wide receiver, as they were saying in that report,
that has to come in from.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
A smaller school.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
As great as he's been ascending the ranks, it's gonna
take some time for him.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, this in particular happens every year. What do you
want him to say about the guy? Oh no, he
looks kind of slow and maybe he's on the stupid side.
That's never gonna happen. He's looking to build these guys up,
and you know, and I think he does believe it.
But he also couched it with all the usual stuff.
The NFL is hard. There's gonna be hiccups. Two steps forward,
(11:31):
one step back, people take And the quote that ran
on social media was quite literally true. X That was
the only part of the you know, three minute block
quote that made it to social media, and that was
enough for people to run wild. I already saw hers
going like two or three rounds earlier. Just this morning,
I was knocking out a couple drafts before we move on.
(11:53):
I did have a note on McMillan because I remember
him really being great. Now, the injuries are a thing
we can't victim, so I'm not gonna try. During twenty
twenty four, he had a five game run in a
full time role. You know, he's an outside receiver. You're
generally running three quarters of his routes outside. So the
five game stint between week fourteen and eighteen, he went
(12:15):
twenty four, three, sixteen and seven.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
He was the.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Overall wide receiver eight. He was a beast lansterer. Again,
it was limited and crowded, so in limited work and
it was crowded, I actually didn't think as a you know,
a projector and a better or a prop better and
all that stuff. I didn't think he was really going
to make an impact. And he had an eighteen percent
target per route run and more than two yards per
rout run. These are the numbers that we look for
(12:41):
that stick that matter. So ident to think McMillan is
going to at least earn a look, get that look,
I think he'll succeed. But it picked one forty three
and two hundred, respectively. You could draft them both, so right,
why not both? Dot Jiff? Now onto the next news
and note Jake, this is the backup tight end that
I was mentioning all. I want to kick it to
(13:01):
you enough out of me. Charges agreed to terms with
David and Joku on a one year deal worth up
to eight million dollars. There's a lot here, dadstand the
Chargers in general taken away.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Yeah, I'm glad that David n Joku's getting another chance.
I mean, I did feel bad for the guy. It
was kind of a rough go last year. It was
the injury, or maybe it wasn't the injury that had
him getting leap frogged by a rookie tight end, Harold
Fanna Junior. We don't know for sure, but it's nice
to see him go to a tight end friendly scheme
(13:33):
or what I suspect to be one, because Mike McDaniel
has made a lot of kind of middling tight ends
look pretty good, at least for fantasy purposes. It was
just a couple of years ago he had twenty nine
year old John hu smith Win in folks some leagues,
and you know, last year he had the ghost of
Darren Waller looking like Casper the fantasy friendly tight end
(13:54):
for a handful of weeks. So if somebody can get
the best out of Njoku, I do think it's him.
But I'm not willing to throw around a Gadsten off
the boat either. I'm not pushing him into the water
because I can't say John that in Jok, who's going
to be better this year for sure than Gadson is
(14:14):
Gadsden a looked pretty solid flashed at least last year
in that offense. Again, I think the offense steps forward
and wants youth and speed with Mike McDaniel, those are
not two things associated with David and Joku at this point.
And in Joku just he just has a habit of
getting hurt. I never want to say that a guy
(14:35):
is definitely gonna get hurt. But when's the last time
that he was fully healthy for a season. I can't
remember it. So yeah, I just don't want people to
throw Gadsden out with the bathwater because of this news.
I might dabble with a little bit of each of
these guys, depending on their ADP's John.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, I think I'm stuck. I'm worried. I'm worried, and
usually when I'm worried about tight end splitting, I think
I'm out. Now. You make an interesting point with McDaniel
and him maximizing talent for a tight end. The thing
is none of those schemes wherever multiple tight ends. So
I'll concede we don't know what the offense is going
(15:15):
to look like, which would be your only pathway to
having both of them matter is a change. Last year,
Chargers sixteen percent two tight end sets or more was
actually dead last The next team was twenty one percent,
and that was Miami, where McDaniel just was. So it's
(15:36):
not to see that whoever is out there won't be
doing really well. I just don't know if it can
support both of them. I think Herbert is the type
of guy we just would need a big schematic change.
So I had Gaston up and down season last year.
He's going off at ADP one point thirty two, which
(15:56):
felt totally fair before the n Joku thing. If you're
not worried at all, and I think he keep going
because he's probably gonna drop between weeks. He still had
a late start last year, so this is weeks three
through nine, Gatson scored twelve and a half Fantasy points
a game. That was good for the tight end six. Right,
that's the good. That's what people are hoping to get
more of. However, from Week ten on he was the
(16:18):
tight end thirty and kind of disappeared. Now the Chargers
lost their entire offensive line and really had to kind
of build a boat in the middle of the ocean.
So maybe that's a bit of a throwaway. But that
plus end joke, who is a little bit of a
worry guy's of physical beat six four to forty six
runs a four to six forty and he was the
tight end eleven in twenty twenty four. So this is
(16:40):
not Jake. I don't know, man, this veteran guy, you know,
Anthony Goazalez coming out of retirement or something. Twenty twenty
four he was a tight end one, and week seven
through fourteen in that same season he had over sixteen
Fantasy points a game. He was the overall tight end four,
tied with McBride. So I'm just worried if Njoku is
(17:03):
healthy that he could eat into it. I think I
want to know. One more thing I was hoping would
come up is one of the points that I've heard
made by sharp analyst is that in Joku just maybe dusted.
Everybody else had a chance at this guy. They all
see the seam stats that I was just repeating to.
None of this is discovered newly. So what do you
(17:24):
think about that? What do you think about the general
collective market? Like, I guess this is kind of wisdom
of the crowd stuff. All the gms had a crack
at him, and he ended up as the backup on
a team that already had a tight end. So do
you think maybe we should just be looking past in
Joku and if you're a Gaston supporter, let him drop around,
then keep scooping him.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Well, I don't think that Injoku was so good and
such a hey we have to go out and get
this player immediately. He wasn't a first wave of free
agency guy. I do think it was just a timing
thing for me of like, hey, it's the NFL Draft,
let's see who he can get for tight ends in
the draft. Sixteen of the thirty two NFL teams took
at least one tight end in the draft this year,
(18:06):
and they're probably just thinking, hey, let's wait it out
and see how those cards fall before anybody makes a move.
To be fair, I would have liked to see him
sign like literally the day after the NFL Draft, and
that didn't happen, So it's a bummer. I don't like
to jump on the he's dusted boat until I've fully
seen it sink. And as of right now, I still
have some hope. But that's it. It's only hope.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Yeah. I would have trepidation at cost for Gaston, but again,
this is one of those other price finding situations. Gatson
is going to move with the Joku lose, He's going
to move. It's just a matter of how much, And
you know that's what markets do. I think it'll be
at least around I think if he starts to crack
the one fifty range, even myself, who's admittedly kind of
(18:52):
bearish on it, if you're looking to put together a
two or three tight end group, to me, he feels
like a pretty strong part of that. Let me take
a breather and shuffle some notes. I don't want to
get to the last end. All right, let's pick it
up right here, Jake with Aaron Rodgers. This is not
necessarily the news we thought was gonna happen. Aaron Rodgers
(19:16):
was supposed to visit with the steel of some of
the weekend the we're't supposed to be doing a lot
of heavy lifting here. That meeting never happened. So I
don't know. We're getting pretty close to the season, you know,
repetitions matter. They brought in Pittman. I mean, is it
really even fair to these guys to not have no
(19:36):
who's gonna be throwing to the ball or at least
be practicing with him? Again, I was always a big
Aaron Rodgers guy. This whole shtick I'm getting is getting
a little old for me because because he's discarding the
things that matter between the lines. I'm fine with you
being a yo yo outside of the lines, providing you're
taking care of your business and treating it seriously, and
(19:57):
that I don't think he's doing. Either do your business
or get off the pot. Let us know, because if not,
are they going to go to Mason Rolff. So again
it is my question to you, mister Trobridge, is a
Rogers to the Steelers a formality? Is it already a
foregone conclusion? And it's so, will they really begin the
season with Mason Rudolph?
Speaker 3 (20:16):
I don't know why it has to be a foregone conclusion.
Why why have the Steelers dugged themselves into the most
avoidable hole and then instead of just throwing the shovel
to the side and pick it up the ladder, they're like, Nope,
we're gonna keep digging in the hopes that eventually we
come out on the other side. That's childish logic. Stop
(20:39):
letting this guy do this to you. He's not good
enough to warrant this. That's the thing. If this was
prime Aaron Rodgers, I get it, because your hopes of
a Super Bowl hinge on this player. Potentially they don't now.
In fact, Rogers stats last year were bad when you
look at him, and they could have looked even worse
(20:59):
if his pass catchers weren't bailing him out. I mean,
you had one of the lowest success rates in the league,
one of the lowest yards per pass attempt, He was
top ten in bad throw percentage, he was below average
on on target percentage. And it looks better because his
pass catchers A led the league and yards after the
catch per attempt, and B had a pretty low drop
(21:21):
percentage as a group. Obviously, a quarterback affects that stat
to some extent, but it's just it's not worth it.
I really think John that the fantasy pieces in Pittsburgh
would be better off at this point with any of
the current quarterbacks on that roster. I mean, DK Metcalf
had the fewest yards per game since his rookie year
with Rogers last season. I don't see him being a
(21:45):
necessarily big upgrade from even Will Howard, the rookie they
drafted last year, Drew Aller, the rookie they took this.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Year in the third round. You're not going to the
super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
At least see what you have in these quarterbacks and
just have them chuck the ball a bunch will be
fine for fantasy.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
If that's the case.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
I'd rather have a rookie going out there just almost
fending for his future throwing the ball to these guys,
then Dusty old Aaron Rodgers just trying not get to
get sacked every play.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
How about that? Allur news. You must unlearn what you
have learned. They went full Yoda on the poor guy.
I mean, and if not, you're getting Rudolph I don't know,
negative epa p attempt on his career six point seven
YPA and then to Rogers, he's slow. He was, he
was inefficient, slow, and he doesn't run, which is a
nightmare for fantasy and it's also a nightmare for real football.
(22:37):
So I don't know why they'd even be interested. All right,
let's move it on now. This one mattered a bit more.
And man, I'm a little glad I didn't get so
aggressive in my drafting early because I'm a huge Malik
Knighbors Stan He's underwent a second surgery on his knee
to remove scar tissue causing stiffness, rut row, shaggy. The
(22:58):
second surgery took place a few weeks ago, described as
a cleanup. These are all the oh the fagazy terms.
They try and get us to think like he's gonna
be fine. It's not expected to impact the top. He
had surgery, but it's not expected to impact the timeline.
So this was a magical surgery. Everybody not, no worries,
don't worry. I mean, this is ridiculous, right, I think
(23:21):
you can't draft Neighbors where he's going at ADP nineteen.
I saw some other sharp sites have him in the
late twenties, early thirties. I would need to see him
probably in the fourth round, and even then, I've had
a bad recent history Jake with lower body injuries and
expecting like full and immediate recoveries. Mark Andrews comes to mind,
(23:43):
Tony Pollard comes to mind. Kark Cousins come to mind.
The old guys that are good football players had lower
body injuries back half of a season and we just
expect him to not it not matter. So what do
you think about, neighbors? Do you think, like I guess
set the bar right? Where should where should be taken?
For me, it's maybe round four. He's never gonna make
(24:03):
it round five, dybe it's four. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yeah, he's too good of a receiver to have him fall.
I would say out of the back of the third round.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
I think he's gonna fit up planting there for right now.
As the season goes on, if we keep getting these pushbacks,
and if they keeps using the word hope, like if
we get two months out from now and they're still
hoping he'll be ready for the opener, that's when the
panics which really gets pulled. Like I can deal with
hope in February, March, and even a little bit in May,
(24:32):
but at a certain point, like you got to know
what's happening with your guy. The thing that makes it
hard to look away from Alik Williams a neighbor. Excuse me,
my league neighbor's entirely, entirely is looking at the depth
chart behind him, because I'm like, well, who can I
pivot to to take advantage of on this offense?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
I don't think that person exists.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
Darnel Mooney, Okay, I guess we'll see how high his
ADP climbs. Maybe he can be respectable. Maybe the tight
ends I start to get more interested in. Maybe Isaiah
likely becomes an even more permanent fixture of my rosters.
But it's I think it's you're saying, if he misses
a game or two, my lak neighbors isn't ready for
week one. I'm still okay, i'lso draft him. It's when
(25:17):
we start to talk about three and four games missed
that that line gets pushed. If you miss four games,
and if we know that or have a pretty good
idea that that's gonna happen, I tend to just be
out on those players.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Do you have that similar cutoff at all?
Speaker 1 (25:30):
John? Yeah? I injuries find me they tend to find
all of us I try to invite them, especially at
a premium. So to me, this is a perfect storm
of thanks but no thanks, you know, especially in the
top thirty six. Like you mentioned you, I'll let him
beat me at that point. If we get into the
forties and especially the late forties, I could see pulling
(25:52):
the trigger, because he absolutely is a difference maker, absolutely
is a different maker. The subsequent piece is that's really interesting.
I think you and Irison Pataco, I think likely is
probably the answer. The thing is Darius Slayton, who really
is just a vertical kind of field stretcher adp. Two fifteen.
He just had core surgery a couple of weeks ago.
But don't worry. He's fine. It didn't matter. It doesn't matter.
(26:15):
Apparently surgery is, you know, don't matter here in New York.
Maybe I should go get something surgeried because it doesn't matter.
You know, you could just go and play professional football
at the highest level. So I know the core stuff
is not necessarily like an ACL, but it's not encouraging
and it's not like he even produced in the sample
you mentioned Mooney, who again I have to admit stepping
(26:37):
on a rake. It just felt intuitive. I said, oh,
don't Old Mooney is a he's a wide receiver, and
like he's got to be good. Right. He had zero
top thirty two weeks last year. He was not a
top thirty two wide receiver, not once. And I get
part of that is scripting, but a lot of times
you could earn your way to one. Right, if you
(26:59):
had one matchup that got exploited, you should land somewhere
in there. So Moony not really looking like a great
pick at cost, I still could absolutely see going there.
I just again with my own recent struggles. I like
the draft guys that I think are really good at football,
you know. I like the draft guys that I think, Yeah,
but you know what, I'm a huh for playing time
(27:22):
and right we get that projectable volume. And I was
talking about that there's a point where it has like
a ceiling baked in that even at a certain cost,
is just not worth it because the other players that
the risk reward ratio could really pop. These last drafts,
I've noticed I'd much rather have any of the direct
(27:43):
RB rookie handcuffs than any of these kind of dusty whiteouts.
I'd rather get them in the mid round. So I
think I'm with you on likely. Maybe it'll be interesting
to see if they go with a two tight end deployment.
I don't know. Miami Dolphins did the right thing. They
agreed to a four year extension sixty eight million with
Devin h Chan, who's the NFL's third highest paid running
(28:06):
back at seventeen million per year. Well deserved, he is
the man. I don't know if that really changes anything.
I guess maybe if we were worried whether or not
they would run him into the ground, now we have
our answer. I guess he's going off at ADP fourteen.
I was already drafting him aggressively despite maybe my systemic worries.
He's a line for a million touches. So does anything
(28:30):
change for you in Miami.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
I'm actually a little surprised to hear you say that
it doesn't change anything for you, because I maybe it's
because i'd been a little bit leery about a Chan
with the complete overhaul of that team, you know, new GM,
new coaching staff, all that stuff. And yes, we can
look at the talent of Achan and assume that he
will continue to be used the same way that he
(28:52):
has been the last couple of years, but it's never
a given. So this is actually a nice kind of
firming up thing for me to say, Okay, they believe
in him, They're not going to try to shoehorn too
much Ali Gordon or Jalen Wright or whoever else into
this mix. Like you've dedicated, You've been committed to a
Chan here, and I'm trying to remember the last time
(29:13):
that a team committed this hard to a running back
being the engine of an offense.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Like contract wise.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
With CMC and Zeke Elliott, you know, they got those
levels of commitment. He has had a little bit more
proving quarterbacks in their quarter at the time that that happened.
So he's kind of the only guy. Even Malik Willis's
contract is not that hefty. It's not as high as
we maybe thought it was going to be once he
started to pop off. So it's a tiebreaker for me
(29:43):
for sure.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Like at his.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
ADP, there have been some guys where I've been wanting
to take Ashton Gentzy over him, and now i think
I'm back on eight Chan over genty.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Yeah, Well that's fine. Genty would be what we mentioned
last week. He's one of the players. I'm kind of
fine mix with a Chan because I think you know,
fantasy outcome wise, they're both very similar, both having a
pathway to quite literally being the number one player in
the game right when a little bit of blocking, they
can catch the ball and if their team winds up
in the green zone and off, both those guys could
(30:15):
be great. I'm definitely taking a Chan over I got
like Barkley, and not that I think Barkley is bad
back to what I was saying, but I think I
want running backs on the upswing right, I'd like I
want to catch the great season. I don't want to
chase the great season. And again, Barkley could surprise us
and pop again. I think the best is in the
rear view. Last piece of news before we get out
(30:38):
of here. This one kind of got dropped to me
a little bit, and it's certain to have some effect
in the drafting market. Minnesota Vikings go out and sign
Juwan Jennings to a one year deal. So, man, we
saw Jennings produce when pepper. He's also known very well
(30:58):
around the league for his blocking abilities. Very few wide
receivers are as physical and the reason I mentioned now
that we don't get points for that, but we kind
of do because that's how you earn playing time. You
want to earn playing time in the NFL, you give
full effort and actually block for runners. The reason I
mentioned this is I was a little high or getting
high on Jordan Addison, and I'm a little bit worried
(31:20):
giving the quarterback situation or lack thereof, that we're not
going to be able to sustain Jefferson with Jennings and
Addison that now is starting to feel a little bit
rich there. So Addison to pick eighty five, I am
probably one hundred percent out. He would have to move
at least another round. Jennings at one forty five I
(31:42):
already drafted this morning because he felt it at ADP.
I got him at like one twenty five. So I
think we have another conversions. Talk to me about the
Vikings pass catching room and maybe what that does for you.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
If anything, it solidifies my notion that I want to
go all in on Justin Jefferson this year for a
bounce back. I'd already been feeling that way. I felt
like he's nobody's really quarterback proof as we saw last year,
but he is still kind of the closest thing to it,
and with Kyler Murray, assuming that he actually wins the job,
(32:15):
the one thing that Kyler does is he targets his
number one guy. Whether it's a wide receiver or a
tight end whoever, he will force feed that guy. So
I'm actually happy to not have to even think about
Jordan Addison. I'm not gonna think about Juwan Jennings. Those
guys just kind of cancel each other out. It's not
that they can't give you spike weeks, but like Juwan
Jennings only had three games last year with more than
(32:36):
fifty five yards. You know, that's not something that's super
attractive unless you are sure he's gonna get more targets,
and I don't think he will with Justin Jefferson being there.
So I'm just gonna go really hard and hope that
this news suppresses Justin Jefferson just a tiny bit as
well as we get closer to the season.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Yeah, I think that spike that I'd mentioned from Jennings
really was more a function of injury and force feeding
volume opposed to earning targets. I think I think Addison's
probably a better target earner than Jennings. But that doesn't
mean I don't think Jennings more of a prototypical outside
(33:17):
guy is again going to earn playing time, and no
one is bumping J Jeff out of the way. So
I'm and the more I talk about this, the more
bearish I'll be coming on Addison. He could fall to
a point where I'm into a Viking stack, but then again,
it takes me back to the quarterback situation, so I'm
probably out of those guys. I like the Jefferson take,
and it's funny you mentioned it because these kind of
(33:39):
you know, noos drops can impact guys in the first round,
where it's just important to stay relative people. Obviously, a
first round pick is can't move up three rounds, but
a first round pick moving back two picks or three
picks is kind of a big deal. And we've been
talking about this, Jake, our approach to the one to
(34:00):
the first two rounds and trying to find balance. You know,
if I compare Jefferson with a one of those second
round running backs that we like, man, I'm feeling very
I'm feeling very good about a J Jeff ken walk
Star J Jeff and a Chen or any of those guys.
So man, that was really nice. So Jake, appreciate your
time as always on this lovely Friday. So that'll do it.
(34:23):
From John Lagaza and Jake Trowbridge here at Fantasy Football Weekly,
I appreciate everybody you know well, like and review with
all that stuff, hit us up on social media and
enjoy your weekend.
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